Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to telecommunications and more specifically to using location information for authorizing a mobile device.
In a generic access network (GAN)/unlicensed mobile access (UMA) network, mobile devices may access services through a wide area network (WAN), such as a cellular network, and/or a local area network (LAN), such as a WiFi network connected to the public Internet. The GAN/UMA network allows a mobile device to transition between the LANs and WANs seamlessly. When a mobile device attempts to register to the network, the mobile device needs to be authorized to determine if it can access the network.
Problems exist in determining how to authorize the mobile device. If a media access control (MAC) address of the point of attachment is used, the geographical location of the mobile device may be difficult to determine, for example if the point of attachment is portable. Thus, a mobile device may roam to different locations and attempt to connect to networks it may not be authorized to connect to. However, any geographical restrictions on the mobile device cannot be determined based on the MAC address of the point of attachment. Another method may use the internet protocol (IP) address. However, the IP address may only give location information to the city or country level. Additionally, multiple layers of Network Address Translation (NAT) may exist between the mobile end user and the cellular network, in which case the IP address received at the cellular network may not be indicative of the end user location. A finer resolution of where the mobile device is connected is not given. A cell ID for a cellular network may be used or other equipment-specific identifiers may be used. However, the cell ID may change and is dependent on a cellular network provider to set. Accordingly, an authorization database based on the cell ID may have to be continually changed as network providers change, expand, or add cell IDs. Continually changing the authorization database may not be realistic with the number of cell IDs that may change. Additionally, as network providers build out networks, continually adding cell IDs to the authorization database is not desirable.